United front presses for RCN cable improvements

Both Chester Township and Mendham Township have decided to
participate in the "Cable Coalition" which was formed by officials
in Raritan Township in Somerset County earlier this year. The
coalition is attempting to bring together 31 municipalities from
Morris, Somerset, and Hunterdon Counties who have RCN as a cable
provider. Mendham Township officials reluctantly agreed to a
five-year franchise renew al of RCN last month while RCN's
franchise in Chester Township expires next spring. Both towns have
experienced similar problems with the cable company, including
complaints about RCN's limited channel capacity.

Mendham Township officials hope that a 10-year franchise with
Cablevision finalized in June will spur improvements by RCN.
Cablevision has not yet expanded into the Chesters.

"Many of the smaller towns are very upset with RCN," said
Dorothy Gooditis, the municipal clerk in Raritan Township who
helped coordinate the coalition. "Some residents with outages get
no response for three or four days. Many towns want to see
technology upgrades. RCN still uses 1980's technology."

United Effort

Participating towns will exchange experiences, share what they
are getting for their franchises, and keep each other abreast of
the latest technology in the industry, Gooditis said.

The Cable Coalition is also considering appointing one
negotiator for all 31 municipalities to refranchise with RCN, said
Gooditis.

"Towns can be stronger by coming together rather than cable
companies looking at each one at a time of refranchising," she
said.

Gooditis said a common municipal complaint about RCN was that
their Internet access only allows customers to download and not
upload material.

The state Board of Public Utilities has scheduled two public
hearings to hear the concerns of municipalities, one in Clinton
Township on Monday, Sept. 10 and another in Princeton on Monday,
Sept. 17, she said.

Local officials said participation in the Cable Coalition could
give them more leverage in dealing with the RCN.

"This coalition could help our joint ox from being gored," said
Mendham Township Committeeman Robert Pierson.

Mendham Township has had its share of problems with RCN. The
company took nearly a year to respond to a report by the township
Cable Television Committee that said RCN had not followed up on
several promises including setting up a local business office,
installing cable service at the township library, and providing the
township with an annual oral report.

One of the few bright notes has been better service in response
to outages, said township officials.

Residents in the Mendhams and Chester Township have requested
fewer overlaps such as multiple shopping networks and more
religious, history, and family and children oriented programs. RCN
officials have responded that there is no room to add channels
because of capacity restraints within their antiquated
system.

"RCN has had a presence in Mendham Township for nearly 15
years," Committeeman Jack Schrier told RCN officials at a meeting
last month. "The level of service remains essentially as it was;
old technology trying to operate in a time of new
technology."

In a survey last year of residents in the Mendhams, nearly 60
percent of the respondents said they had had billing problems with
RCN and over half said they had considered canceling RCN and
purchasing programming from an alternate service
provider.

"We plan to eventually upgrade our services," said RCN
spokesperson Nancy Bavec. "I can't answer when that will
occur."

Robert Wewers, RCN's New Jersey regional manager, did not return
phone calls.

Chester Township has also had its share of RCN induced
headaches. Karen Powell, chair of Chester Township's Utilities
Committee, said she received more than 50 complaints about RCN from
residents within the last two months. RCN's five-year

franchise in the township expires in May, 2002. "Outages are
frequent and customers have a hard time trying to get through to
their 800 number," Powell said. "One resident waited four hours to
talk to someone at their (RCN's) service center."

Bavec said an independent monitoring firm had concluded that
RCN's customer response times had been improving but she added that
"the numbers are still not where we want them to be."

Bavec said the cable company has also been trying to provide
better training to its employees.

Powell said another common complaint in Chester Township was
that RCN gives a small credit to customers for long
outages.

Chester Township residents have requested that RCN add more
channels but RCN officials have responded that it is difficult to
remove some channels and replace them with others because federal
"must carry" rules protect cable networks that RCN has agreed to
carry as part of a paid agreement.

"Hopefully there will be some changes with towns collectively
working together through this coalition," said Powell. "RCN's
prices keep going up but their service only gets worse."

"If you live in Chester Township, get a satellite dish," she
said.

RCN has not followed through on some of the conditions of its
franchise in Chester Township, said Powell. The company originally
agreed to make a representative available in the township to answer
questions and take remove customers' old equipment, she
said.

But Powell said the representative initially came to the
township hall once a week and then stopped coming. RCN also failed
to provide an annual written report to the township until Mayor
Benjamin Spinelli asked the company to comply with the condition,
she said.

Gooditis said the Cable Coalition held its first meeting at the
end of May with representatives from 10 towns from Somerset and
Hunterdon counties. Several more towns attended a meeting in June,
she said. The coalition is waiting for resolutions from all 31
concerned municipalities. "Small towns are often at a disadvantage
compared to the cable companies," Gooditis said. "Many
municipalities feel that they are operating in the dark.' '
Officials of both Mendham Township and Mendham Borough have been
enthusiastic about recent franchises with Cablevision. Cablevision
officials have said their company offers more channels than RCN and
is building a state-of-the-art network that will include digital
video and high- speed Internet access. "We hope the pressure of
competition will force improvement in RCN's services," said Mendham
Borough Councilman Gerard Dolan.

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